Derek Falvey and Thad Levine likely will end up with a surprise choice as the next Twins manager. In the past two years, they have added virtual unknowns to the team’s coaching staff.

Falvey — who suggested the search would take “multiple weeks” — and Levine are likely not hung up on experience, and will be more in favor of a manager who relates well to young players, values analytics, promotes healthy nutrition and cutting-edge workouts for players, and is bilingual.

LOS ANGELES – Moments after he’d put one last baseball into play, watched that fly, then stayed just long enough to ensure Max Muncy completed his journey, Ted Barrett, the plate umpire for Game 3 of the World Series, was offered for his first meal in many hours the choice of steak or fish.

“I had both,” he said.

Not 15 hours later, he was again in a room behind the Dodgers dugout with his five crewmates.

In case you’re curious to know what it feels like to umpire a seven-hour ...

The problem with such second-guessing from parties not in the know is they are, um, not in the know. After the game, Roberts provided the context:

“Before the top of the seventh was going on, it was a long sixth for us,” Roberts said. “I had a conversation with Rich, and we talked about it. He said, ‘Keep an eye on me. I’m going to give it everything I have. Let’s go hitter to hitter and just keep an eye on me.’ So right there, I know Rich did everything he could, competed, left everything out ...

Saturday, October 27, 2018

The one way to fix baseball involves changing one of the most sacred aspects of the game. Are you ready for Strike Four? Here’s why baseball needs a fourth strike: Batters have never been worse at making contact. Sure, they hit tons of homers—but they’re striking out more than ever, which means you can wait in line to get beer and never miss the ball even going in play. Three strikes just isn’t enough anymore. Four ...

So…Game 1 of the Japan Series between Hiroshima and SoftBank ends in a 2-2 tie after 12 innings. After the 18 inning WS game, of course it would…

It used to be that NPB post-season games would go 15 innings, and then end in a tie if needed, but it was decided yesterday in the two team’s pre-Series meeting to change the rule to 12 innings. I really don’t see MLB making changes like that the day before the World Series starts…

On the same day the MLB saw its longest-ever World Series game end ...

The Rangers, too, are trying to expand their scope. Daniels’ master stroke remains the trade of Mark Teixeira in 2007, in which he read the market perfectly, maximized trade value and gave the organization the foundation for a long-term window of contention. It just so happened to coincide with the time that the use of advanced metrics—analytics—were warping to hyper speed. While the Rangers tried to prop their window open, other clubs invested more time and effort in advanced window-opening ...

The Athletics were the most surprising MLB team this year, leading general manager Billy Beane to say the club wanted to extend manager Bob Melvin’s contract earlier this month.

It turns out Beane and executive vice president David Forst will also reportedly receive extensions, too.

The Athletic reported Friday the team is set to announce Melvin, Beane and Forst will get new contracts, possibly right after the World Series. Their contracts were all set to expire after the 2019 season.

Friday, October 26, 2018

The Boston Red Sox reportedly claim that they caught the Los Angeles Dodgers stealing and relaying signs from second base to batters during Game 2 of the World Series, according to Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller.

The incident that prompted speculation occurred during the fourth inning of the contest when Los Angeles shortstop Manny Machado was on second base as Boston southpaw David Price faced Yasiel Puig. Puig, who hit .209 against left-handed pitching during the regular season, knocked an ...

According to Jeff Passan, CAA agent Brodie Van Wagenen has emerged as the favorite for the vacant general manager position and he is reportedly expected to accept the position. It was reported yesterday that Doug Melvin was out of the running which narrowed down the field to Van Wagenen and Chaim Bloom, and now it seems as though the position is Van Wagenen’s although nothing official has been announced.

This would be an unconventional hire for the Mets who have become stubbornly risk averse ...

Former home run king Hank Aaron offered his opinion on the increase in strikeouts around Major League Baseball. Let’s just say it wasn’t a sparkling defense of players willingly sacrificing consistent contact for added power numbers.

The Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves legend was on hand before Game 3 of the World Series to present the prestigious award named in his honor, which recognizes the best hitter in each league as voted by the fans and media. This year the award went to J.D. Martinez ...

The city is only one Dodgers win from making another kind of history: The super sports equinox. If the Dodgers win just one of the next two games at home and force a Game 5, teams representing the city in all four major North American sports will be playing on the same day. And although World Series titles come and go, the super equinox has only happened once before in all of sports history — and LA’s super equinox would come with all its teams at home, which has never happened before.

Was the death of baseball great Christy Mathewson at age 45 partly a result of exposure to poisonous gas in October or November 1918 in France, while serving in the same Chemical Warfare Service unit of future fellow Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Branch Rickey?

Two months after (Mathewson’s) death, Maj. Gen. Amos A. Fries, the second head of the CWS, was said by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to be “of the opinion that war gas did not cause or hasten tuberculosis but in fact actually prevented ...

Ben Lindbergh sheds a little light on stuff we don’t know. The gap between team proprietary data and what public analysts have is only getting bigger. In the short term it’s good for smart teams when it helps them win. When they lose, however, front offices will then have to fend off even bigger, angrier mobs calling for their heads.

Hours after Betts and the Red Sox took a 2-0 World Series lead on Wednesday and with temperatures dipping into the 30s overnight, the generous star reportedly provided hot meals from trays of food to the city’s homeless outside the Boston Public Library.

Former Red Sox infielder Lou Merloni, who hosts a show on Boston sports radio WEEI, tweeted Thursday night to share a photo and bring light to Betts’ Good Samaritan gesture.

In an unprecedented move, the NFL has let one of its game officials go in the middle of the season.

First reported by FootballZebras.com, NFL down judge Hugo Cruz has been fired for performance reasons.

Cruz was responsible for a big mistake in Week 6 when he missed an obvious false start by Chargers left tackle Russell Okung on a scoring play against the Browns. He didn’t work in Week 7 and according to ESPN, there was no indication Cruz was involved in any off-field incidents or that his ...

Mike Winter, a VIP host for area clubs, was just coming out of “Storyville” at about 1:45 a.m.—a few hours after the Red Sox’ locked up Game 2 of the World Series—when he saw two men in hoodies executing a unique show of good faith. The pair had about 10 trays of food in a shopping cart which they were distributing to the line of homeless folks who were lined up along Boston Public Library.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Whether he was number one in your hearts is up to you. He was number one on the scorecard for the Cubs in 2004-05. That was his uniform number.

The Panamanian utility man played seven MLB seasons, making stops in Detroit & Montreal before playing his final two MLB seasons on the North Side.

As a Major Leaguer, he played every position except pitcher, catcher and first base. However if asked what Macías’ true position was, one might say the answer is pinch hitter. He played in 210 games ...

LOS ANGELES — Four years in, he still doesn’t show any signs of going Hollywood.

Clearly hasn’t upgraded from Gap chic to designer threads. Isn’t hobnobbing with the TV and movie stars who come to see his team, or at least to be seen. Still puts the job first and hours in, colleagues saying his claims of reduced intensity and increased maturity are a relative subject.

But the most impressive, and probably most important, thing that hasn’t changed about Andrew Friedman as he moved from ...

On Thursday, the Minnesota Twins named Rocco Baldelli the 14th manager in franchise history. Baldelli joins David Bell (Cincinnati Reds) and Brad Ausmus (Los Angeles Angels) as skippers installed this week around the World Series hush periods. Three teams—the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers—still have to appoint a field general. But halfway through the hiring cycle let’s look at four things you need to know about managerial ...

It seems like this World Series matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers isn’t the ratings draw MLB was hoping it would be. The ratings for both Games 1 and 2 are down from their 2017 counterparts, and represent the lowest ratings for those games in at least three years.

...

According to Sports Media Watch, Tuesday’s Game 1, played at 8 p.m. ET local time at Fenway Park, came in at an 8.2 rating and 13.76 million viewers. That’s a 6 percent drop in ratings and an 8 ...

TORONTO – Impressed by the way the Tampa Bay Rays use data in their decision-making on and off the field, the Toronto Blue Jays hired Charlie Montoyo away from their American League East rivals to be their new manager.

Montoyo agreed to a three-year contract with a club option for the 2022 season.

The decision, perhaps the most important made in Ross Atkins’ three years as GM thus far, comes on the same day Rocco Baldelli, another finalist from the analytically advanced club, was hired by ...